The Cavs had two chances last night. One chance to extend the game late, but before that, J.R. Smith intentionally missed the final free throw of the game, and no one knew other than himself. Not only that, but he was able to grab the offensive rebound and dish out to Kevin Love who dished out to
Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com reported on James’ thoughts regarding Delly taking the biggest shot of the game.
“I definitely would have loved to been in that position after it got swung to Kev [Love] and to [Matthew] Delly. I wish that was me for sure,” he said. “One more swing. Selfishly, I wish I had a look at it the way I was shooting the ball tonight. But Delly left it short.”
At point in the game, Delly was 1-5 from the field and 1-4 from downtown. He did make an earlier triple that ended a Cavs drought earlier in the game, but with guys like J.R. Smith (7-14 3PT), Kevin Love (4/9 3PT) and LeBron James (4-5 3PT) on the floor and about six seconds left in the game, Delly probably could have dished out to LeBron on the wing or back to Love. Heck, he could’ve even called a timeout (one that the Cavs had) to draw up a possible game winning play on the road.
Kyrie Irving Takes Full Responsibility For Lost Game Last Night
Instead, the Cavs best three-point shooter percentage-wise took the shot, and that’s something we’ll all probably live with. Given another opportunity, there’s no doubt Delly would put that shot up again and probably knock it down.
Basketball Reference
But again, LeBron knows that you should always ride the hot hand, even if it’s not him. This game, it was Smith, Love, and James, and Delly will likely learn that to have that “ride the hot hand” mentality.
